Since I raised the issue last week of operations being cancelled in St. James's Hospital my office has been inundated with the reflections of people all over the country on other operations being cancelled. It must be very dispiriting for professionals to work in the health services given the present position.

Ten years have passed, €60 billion of taxpayers' money has been spent on the health service, there have been three Ministers for Health and Children and the Government still does not seem to realise that there is a serious shortage of acute beds in the country. Last week the Taoiseach said there will always be waiting lists and the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, said this is a manufactured crisis, with people in white coats showing concern, and that the Government will not be directed by such a situation. Last week it was St. James's Hospital that was involved and this week it is the Mater Hospital.

BreastCheck was first rolled out in 2000 and there was a specific guarantee that six beds in the Mater Hospital would be left aside specifically for women who required urgent medical attention for cancer and that they would receive intensive treatment from specialists within three weeks. I understand those six beds are no longer available to women who need urgent medical attention for cancer, which is appalling. The guarantee of six beds no longer applies because the figures for accident and emergency units are being massaged. It is all about the trolley count. It is either a question of saving face or saving lives and in this case it appears the Government is more interested in saving face. Will the Taoiseach tell the House that the six beds guaranteed to be ring-fenced for women who require urgent medical attention for cancer will be restored forthwith?

The Deputy raised two questions but I believe I answered the one on beds last week. In addition to the HSE's own beds, the number of beds contracted by it this year amounts to approximately 1,300. Some 360 beds are being made available through the private sector, including 220 in the greater Dublin area, 100 in the south and 40 in the western region. Another 1,050 have been taken from the other sectors. The plan of the Minister for Health and Children is to take approximately 1,000 beds out of "cohabiting" hospitals — private hospitals.

Progress is being made on all these issues, as I explained at some length last week. Deputy Kenny does not want to acknowledge the enormous increase in numbers successfully achieved through the winter initiative in the accident and emergency system. There has been a huge reduction in respect of the accident and emergency waiting list. In October, there was a reduction of over 30%, as was the case in November. In December and January, there were reductions of 50% and 57%, respectively. The time people have been waiting has reduced dramatically.

I know about the St. James's Hospital issue and what arose therefrom, as Deputy Kenny probably does also. I acknowledge the pressures on staff in hospitals at this time of the year and also the work they do.

We have invested enormously in cancer services. Many thousands more people have received cancer care. There have been over 40,000 more inpatient treatments and 55,000 more day care cases. The waiting lists for cancer treatment of all kinds have dramatically improved in the past decade. We have over 300 cancer specialist posts and we are building cancer services under the new cancer control strategy of last year, which was welcomed by everybody.

BreastCheck cancer screening does not represent the emergency cancer process, as Deputy Kenny should know. BreastCheck is being rolled out nationally. We are preparing a cervical screening programme, which is due to start later this year. There was no screening programme at all until a few years ago. We are investing in new cancer treatments and we have guaranteed capital funding, including PPP funding, of over €400 million for the radiotherapy network. The HSE will implement the programme over the coming years; it cannot be done all at once.

The new linear accelerators are being installed in St. Luke's hospital and new facilities are being built at Beaumont and St. James's Hospitals. Patients are being treated in Limerick, services will be offered in Waterford Hospital, which is linked to the private hospital in Waterford, and there is capacity in Cork and Galway. Patients in Donegal are being offered treatment in Belfast and there are also arrangements with Galway. All those services are in operation. I have no intention of saying during Leaders' Questions that if any hospital has a certain number of beds linked to anything, or to consultants, those beds should have a certain configuration.